CPU Fried? A lot of unstable FPS drops in Game. Need help!

Artur Minacov

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Dec 9, 2014
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Hello guys,

I posted in the past about my FPS drops in game. Before I switched my Monitor from 60hz one to a 144hz one, I had around 1280x Resolution desktop and in-game, and it was running very well with around 250-300 FPS. Very Stable.

Before I received my monitor, I cleaned my PC from dust, but I made a mistake by doing it with a towel that had Rubbing Alcohol Compound 70% on it (not liquid, it was just to make the dust stick easier on it). I did touch the CPU (not the chip itself, but the top of it cause it had a lot of hard dust on it). I also touched the chipset of the graphic card.

I have tried to put my old monitor back, and it did not work either, so now I know something is wrong with the PC itself. So first thing first, I thought it was the graphic card. I have a 650 GTX Ti Boost. My friend came over and gave me his 670 GTX card (much more performant), and I still had FPS drops. So my conclusion was, not the graphic card.

It can not be the monitor, cause that would not make sense. The only thing that would make sense is that my graphic card could not hold a 1920x resolution, but it happened with 670 GTX which can hold it easily, so def. not the monitor.

Now, I am left with two options, CPU and Motherboard. I do not remember touching the mother board that much, really barely touched it. However the CPU, I do remember I held it in my hands, and cleaned the top of it. I do not think I touched the chip itself.

Anyways, here is a screenshot of EVGA Precision X CPU Logs:
http://gyazo.com/34d4c8a2cb8eb938a012da343a691291
http://gyazo.com/57dbc2e187852a0ea32ad332e6cef80b

I am not sure but I did not odd anything other than browsing the web, and watching a movie on netflix, and it looks like the performance is unstable, it goes up and down all the time.

Also, another odd thing, when I join a server in game, I get 315 FPS, and than it gradually drops to 250, to 200, to 150, than unstable from 150 to 60 all the time, nto allowing me to game properly.

Any clue guys, would appreciate it.
 
Solution
he cleaned up his thermal paste between cpu and cpu cooler , thinking it was dust or something but then he didint reput a new thermal paste and sit his cpu cooler on cpu , so as soon as he game , it demand a lot to his cpu but the heat transfer cant be done so , cpu will reduce perfomance due to heat , heat will stay at 45 degree but perfomance will be slightly reduced.

Ck1_13

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Mar 3, 2009
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First off, make sure your CPU is not overheating. Likely the BIOS shows this, or there's a lot of programs that will tell you this. Oddly, I don't think you did anything to it, I mean a static charge for instance would fry a component, such as a popped cap (look for these, any capacitors that are 'bubbled' up), in which case that could be your problem. Caps are easy to replace. Also if you were cleaning it, how bad was it, could the dust have overheated something?

The other thought that comes to mind, is the PSU, is there any chance you can try another one?

You sound convinced it is a hardware issue, and you could be right as the problem popped up after you cleaned it, but one way to be sure, is to install windows 'clean', on another partition/drive. Just a base install, with drivers in order to test if it is in fact hardware.

Also, with hardware being plugged in and out, your hardware abstraction layer, well, device manager will have multiple items in it now, that 'can' cause issues, for instance if you have 6 monitors installed, you 'may' have a problem with refresh rates. Easy to check just open dos as admin and type

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc

when device manager opens, click show hidden devices, and remove any 'ghosted' / duplicate items in the list, restart and see if performance is any better.

Also, check task manager when your FPS drops and see if by chance something 'else' is chewing up CPU cycles.

Finally, you can try a cpu prime um..testing program to push it to the max, and test for stability.

Good luck, I hope something here helps.
 

cok4in

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Dec 13, 2014
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4,520
he cleaned up his thermal paste between cpu and cpu cooler , thinking it was dust or something but then he didint reput a new thermal paste and sit his cpu cooler on cpu , so as soon as he game , it demand a lot to his cpu but the heat transfer cant be done so , cpu will reduce perfomance due to heat , heat will stay at 45 degree but perfomance will be slightly reduced.
 
Solution

sedateeddie

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Nov 11, 2014
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4,540


This might seem like a silly question, but when you say you cleaned the top of the CPU, did you remember to reapply the thermal paste before reseating the cooler, and have you made sure that the cooler has been properly reattached and none of the feet are loose?

From the symptoms you describe it sounds like the CPU might be throttling itself to stop overheating.